Prep Baseball: Rochelle pitcher helps topple Freeport in 3A

Joyce gave up only three hits in six innings Thursday, striking out seven and walking one, to pitch Rochelle to a 3-1 victory over Freeport in the Sterling Class 3A Sectional.

Joyce kept the Pretzels (11-19) off-balance with his changeup and a split-fingered fastball that Hubs coach Nick Reineck taught him only two weeks ago.

“It was on,” Freeport coach Roger Fegan said. “He was throwing it really well and our guys couldn’t adjust. It looks like a fastball and then just dives out. It was a very effective pitch for him.”

“My changeup was working so well,” Joyce said, “I didn’t really have to use it until the end of the game when they caught on in certain counts where they knew a changeup was coming. So I worked in the splitter and it worked really well.

“I am surprised I learned it so quick and so well.”

Although Freeport bowed out, the Pretzels didn’t make an error, a far cry from their five-error 12-4 loss to Rochelle earlier in the season.

“We always wish we could comde out and hit the ball great, but it doesn’t always happen,” said catcher Andrew Woods, who led the Pretzels with two hits. “But our defense was for sure here tonight.”

“This is what I expected all year,” Fegan said. “We need to play like that with the same emphasis the whole year, and unfortunately we didn’t do it until the last game.”

Travis Buckwalter, who scored Freeport’s run in the fifth, and Steve McShane had the Pretzels’ other two hits.

Mark Wanner was 2-for-2 for Rochelle with two runs scored and Dylan Hopkins was 1-for-2 with a walk and a run scored. Joyce helped himself by driving in two runs with a single and a sacrifice fly.

The Pretzels played errorless ball, but only Woods did much with the bat.

“I went up there with a good approach, and that’s what happens,” Woods said. “I connected pretty good.”

Fegan said the Pretzels hit several other balls hard that would have been hits “nine times out of 10,” but weren’t Thursday.

“Our offense is usually there most of the game,” losing pitcher Derek Kortemeier said. “We just couldn’t find it today.”